Terror of the Zygons Part One

The one where the TARDIS team meets UNIT in Scotland...

The episode opens with a shot of an excellent and perfectly detailed and convincing model of an oil rig in the ocean, but the model doesn't stick around for long because it starts to break up and sink into the icy depths. Pity poor rigger Munro, whose appeal for some haggis on the next shipment over will forever go unheeded. He wanted haggis because he's Scottish, you see.

We're then treated to a gorgeous introductory scene for our heroes, the Doctor, Harry and Sarah, as they emerge from the undergrowth on a remote Scottish moor (the original introductory scene, with the TARDIS materialising in a wood, was cut, but is available on the DVD. That's lovely too). It's great to see them again, Harry with the Doctor's scarf wrapped round him (although he still hasn't changed his clothes), Sarah donning the Doctor's floppy hat, and the Doctor himself wearing a tam o'shanter and tartan scarf as he follows the signal of the Brigadier's Time Space Telegraph. Douglas Camfield's direction is gorgeous, accompanied by some beautiful pastoral music by Geoffrey Burgon using wind instruments.

The trio hitches a lift into the village, which is playing host to UNIT. It's also great to see the Brigadier and Regimental Sergeant Major Benton again. There's been a definite pulling back on the presence of UNIT in the series since Jon Pertwee left, and this story will be the last time we see the Brig until 1983's Mawdryn Undead. Having said that, UNIT didn't feature as heavily as you might think in the latter Pertwee era, appearing in just six stories (seven if you count The Time Warrior) in Seasons 9, 10 and 11. UNIT's heyday (1970-71) was long gone already by the time producer Philip Hinchcliffe took over.

UNIT has based itself at the local pub, the Fox Inn, where landlord Angus McRanald plays the bagpipes morning, noon and night. The pipes get on the Brigadier's nerves, and I can't blame him for getting frustrated: the sound of bagpipes is truly grating. Rather amusingly, the bagpipes stop the very moment the Doctor enters the inn! Here, the Brigadier briefs our heroes about the problem: in the past month, three oil rigs in the North Sea have been destroyed, with the loss of many lives in the process. There's no clue as to how or why, which is where the Doctor comes in.

The Doctor isn't very happy about being dragged millions of light years back to Earth just to investigate some missing oil rigs, and I can well understand that. It's not really the Doctor's thing, certainly not since those early days of being exiled on Earth with little choice but to investigate UNIT's mysteries. Surely there's the technology and expertise on Earth to find out how and why these rigs have been destroyed? Ultimately, it's the loss of tens of lives on the rigs that persuades the Doctor to help.

We also meet the Duke of Forgill, played sedately by John Woodnutt. The Duke is a terse, no-nonsense kind of man, but I kind of like him because while he has no sense of humour, he inspires quite a bit of comedy from the others, who also recognise his taciturn demeanour. Anyway, any character that leaves a room saying "Good day to you" gets my vote.

Writer Robert Banks Stewart is gradually and cleverly building up the perfect mystery, using the characters' strengths to move the plot forward. Doctor Harry looks into the rig victims' medical reports, and journalist Sarah quizzes the locals about what they might know. It shows that Banks Stewart thought about his characters before putting pen to paper, something too many other Doctor Who writers often failed to do. In many writers' hands, companions were just mouthpieces for their dialogue, but here Banks Stewart works with the characters as established.

Meanwhile, the Ben Nevis rig becomes the fourth to fall victim to what appears to be a terrible scaly something in the waters below (we're in Scotland, so I'm already putting two and two together...). Each attack also involves a radio blackout and a strange sound, which makes me wonder whether the Sea Devils are back on the scene.

But no, that's very quickly pooh-poohed when we get a brief glimpse of what must be the alien menace for this story (the titular Zygons!). The creatures are watching events at the Fox Inn through a camera in the stag's head mounted on the wall (recently donated to Angus by the Duke), and we glimpse their strange red bumpy hands, the bizarre pizza-like nodules they use as controls, and a close-up on their eyes. Later, we hear their hoarse, whispering voices, but Camfield never lets us see the creatures full-length, building up that tension and curiosity expertly.

Angus tells Sarah that people tend to go missing on Tulloch Moor, relating the story of the 19th century Donald and Robert Jameson - the former disappeared, the latter was traumatised by what happened. Then there was the "foreigner from the Black Isle" - was he foreign because he was from outside the village, or foreign as in not Scottish? - who also disappeared on the moor in 1920. Angus believes there are evil spirits on Tulloch Moor, and although Sarah fails to concur, it all adds a beautiful depth and texture to the building mystery. Camfield's direction of Angus Lennie in this scene is great, slowly zooming in on him as he relates his haunted tales.

Camfield was one of Doctor Who's best ever directors, demonstrated by the scenes shot on the shoreline at Climping Beach, with Munro washed up with his life ring in the struggling daylight. The scene where Harry finds Munro in the dunes, and both are shot by the Caber, is directed tightly and with building tension. The moment Munro is shot (presumably dead) and Harry wounded is distressingly real, and the following scenes with the Doctor and Sarah showing obvious concern for Harry's safety in the hospital add to the weight of it all. It's not often a Doctor Who companion is shot and hospitalised. As for the Caber, what was he thinking? He may well have thought the two men were trespassing, but to shoot them like that is surely attempted murder?

I love the scene in the inn leading up to the phone call. Sarah bounds in and throws a load of questions and statements at the Doctor, who is concentrating sombrely. Sarah is upbeat and clearly loving every minute of getting "back on the beat", using her journalistic skills and finding things out. It's only the phone call from the hospital which bursts her bubble. Elisabeth Sladen answers the phone with the tongue-in-cheek Scottish accented: "Hellooo, Fox Inn?", but her face drops when she hears the message. "Harry's been shot." It's a reflection of how lovable this TARDIS team is that the viewer instantly feels it too.

Let's not forget how wonderful Tom Baker is here too, adding so much gravitas and power to the situation with his sombre, sonorous voice. Of the ocean, he tells Huckle: "It may be calm, but it's never empty." Those boggling eyes give it all that added frisson too. "A set of giant molars that can chew through solid steel as easily as paper," he says later. Your average actor might deliver that line in a pretty average way, but in Tom's hands (or tones), it takes on a much more ominous feel.

The Doctor leaves Sarah to look over Harry at the sick bay, where staff nurse Sister Lamont is giving off weirdness in waves. Staring wide eyes, shiny skin, and a generally unsettling screen presence means Lillias Walker is by far the creepiest aspect of this whole creepy episode. "It's all right, Dr Sullivan," she sneers. "You're quite safe. Your worries are over now. You're going to be very well looked after..." Brrrrrr....

The cliffhanger is an absolute doozy, one of the best in Doctor Who's entire canon. Sarah is chatting to the Doctor over the phone quite innocently, but then a bright red monster with a huge head, gaping mouth and outstretched arms lurches up behind her, and Camfield crash zooms in on the alien's arresting face as the titles flood in. It's one of the ultimate WTF moments, as it is so unexpected and directed with such flair and an incisive feel for how to best present it. I can imagine it gave younger viewers nightmares for weeks. It still gives me chills now, and I'm in my forties!

First broadcast: August 30th, 1975

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: That cliffhanger. It's directed so well that it remains utterly terrifying.
The Bad: It's really very hard to pick anything out that's bad.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 05

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/06/terror-of-zygons.html

Terror of the Zygons is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Terror-Zygons-DVD/dp/B00BPCNO00